Lecture 3:
Ethny (ethnic group)
8 March 2006
Ethnicity
• Historically largely within the field of
anthropology
• Central focus on the concept of culture
• Terms ethnic, ethny and ethnic relations
escape the problematic nature of the term
race
Ethnicity - ethnic group
• the term ethnicity first appeared in English in the 1950s; it has various
meanings: a particular ethnic group, ethnic identity, the essence of
ethny, belonging to ethny, field of study...
• Greek adjective ethnikos: referring to heathens, the ‘others’, foreign;
meant gentile
• derived from Greek noun ethnos: people, unity of people with
common blood or descent; sharing some biological or cultural
characteristics (it referred to a basic human category, not a subgroup) –
but others, e.g. foreign barbarians were referred to as ethnea
• 15th century in English ethnic meant somebody not Hebrew, not
Christian; a pagan --> non-ethnic ‘us’ & ethnic ‘others’
• ethnic ceased to be related to ‘heathen’ in the early 18th c.
Some related concepts
• Ethnic identity:
• individual level of identification with a
culturally defined collectivity, the sense of
an individual that they belong to a particular
cultural community
Some related concepts
• Ethnic origin:
• refers to the individual’s sense of ancestry
and nativity; connected to one’s parents and
grandparents
• problematic collective dimension:
migrational origins of ethnies =>
ethnogenesis
Some related concepts
• Ethnocentrism: the sense of one’s own
group’s uniqueness and centrality in relation
to other ethnies
• The belief that your own group's cultural
traditions and values are correct and
superior to all others. It is often coupled
with dislike and even contempt for people
who have other cultural traditions.
Some related concepts
• Ethnicism: rarely used
• Movements of protest and resistance by
ethnies and on behalf of ethnies against
exploitative and oppressive outsiders
•
(John Hutchinson & Anthony D. Smith “Ethnicity” Oxford Readers, 1996)
No agreed upon definition
• Various levels of incorporation: ethnic
category, ethnic network, ethnic association,
ethnic community (nation) =>
• ethnic category v ethnic community
Richard Schermerhorn
(Comparative Ethnic Relations, 1970)
• “An ethnic group is ... a collectivity within a
larger society having real or putative
common ancestry, memories of a shared
historical past, and a cultural focus on one
or more symbolic elements defined as the
epitome of their peoplehood... A necessary
accompaniment is some consciousness of
kind among members of the group.”
Manning Nash
(The Cauldron of Ethnicity in the Modern World, 1989)
• “The most common ethnic identity markers
... are kinship, ... commensality, ... and a
common cult... This trinity of boundary
markers and mechanisms is the deep or
basic structure of ethnic group
differentiation. It is the presence of cultural
markers of blood, substance, and cult that
separates ethnic groupings from other kinds
of social aggregates, groups, and entities.”
Fredrik Barth
(Ethnic Groups and Boundaries, 1969)
• “ethnic groups are categories of ascription and
identification by the actors themselves.”
• the ethnic boundary defines the group
• “ethnic categories provide an organizational vessel
that may be given varying amounts and forms of
content in different socio-cultural systems. They
may be of great relevance to behaviour, but they
may not be.”
Clifford Geertz
(Old Societies and New States, 1963)
• “By a primordial attachment is meant one that stems from
the ‘givens’ – or, more precisely, as culture is inevitably
involved in such matters, the assumed ‘givens’ – of social
existence: immediate contiguity and kin connection
mainly, but beyond them the givenness that stems from
being born into a particular religious community, speaking
a particular language, or even a dialect of a language, and
following particular social practices. These congruities of
blood, speech, custom, and so on, are seen to have an
ineffable, and at times overpowering, coerciveness in and
of themselves.”
6 main features of ethnies:
(Hutchinson & Smith, 1996)
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common name
myth of common ancestry (shared origin)
shared historical memories
elements of common culture
a link with a homeland
sense of solidarity
Culture
(Fenton, 1999)
• The concept of culture is a central one but also a tantalising
one
• Material culture: the objects created, the material
reproduction of human societies
• Symbolic: valued styles and ways of life, manners,
customs, rituals...
• Emphasising the importance of learning: socialisation v
innate bio-psychological universals => seemingly endless
variation in the construction of cultures
Culture
(Fenton, 1999)
• How does culture construct group boundaries?
• “Culture should not be thought of as a fixed quality;
cultures shift both in small incremental steps and in
seemingly dramatic moments wherein we imagine we
glimpse the end of a way of life or the beginning of a new
one. Neither should it be thought of as ‘attached’ to a
group, community, nation or people in such a way that we
can, without qualification, define ‘this people’ as the
people who share ‘this culture’... Devotion to specific
cultural forms varies across a group and the forms are
frequently contested and constantly being defined and
redefined.”
Culture
(Fenton, 1999)
• Language
• A powerful group marker but
• Languages stretch across many groups who may
think of themselves as ethnic groups – ethnically
distinct
• If the language is a part of an ethnic (or national)
claim, it is the most important mechanism of the
boundary-making process
• If unknown to outsiders, it is a means of social
exclusion
Different contexts of ethnicity
• Ethnicity is both material and symbolic; it is
both grounded and constructed:
• Ethnic categories shift and change their
content as circumstances change &
• Ethnicity also has a ‘real’ social basis in the
enduring importance that people attach to
ancestry, language, culture
Concepts of ethnicity
• American sociological tradition: ethnic groups are
parts of a larger society; ethnies are always
minorities within a nation or national state
• ‘objective’ and ‘subjective’ approaches:
• O: emphasis on cultural traits (language, religion,
culture, customs, ‘racial characteristics’)
• S: emphasis on the contextual meaning and the
fluidity of ethnic identity
Different ‘types’ of ethnic groups
(Eriksen, 1993)
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Urban ethnic minorities
Indigenous peoples
Proto-nations (ethnonationalist movements)
Ethnic groups in plural societies
Post-slavery minorities (added by Fenton)
Bringing in the ethnicity
• after the atrocities of the Second World War and the Holocaust and
anti-Semitism, the word ‘race’ became problematic
• the word ‘ethnicity’ becomes the preferred choice for expressing intergroup differences
• especially from the 1960s onward; anti-colonial, anti-racist arguments
=> ethnicity expresses positive feelings of belonging to a cultural
group
• after the collapse of communism more negative aspects of ethnicity
come to the fore (esp. because of ‘ethnic cleansing’)
• but - the persistence of race...
8.
Ethnicity
Please indicate with a tick the ethnic group to which you feel you belong, or give details of the
group to which you feel you belong in the section marked OTHER. Ethnicity is not the same
as nationality, place of birth or citizenship but is to do with colour, race, broad ethnic group
and culture.
Asian or Asian British:
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Bangladeshi
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Indian
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Pakistani
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Other Asian Background
Mixed Parentage:
White and Asian
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White and Black African
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White and Black Caribbean
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Other Mixed Background
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Black or Black British:
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African
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Caribbean
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Other Black Background
White:
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White British
White Irish
Other White Background
Chinese or other ethnic group:
Chinese
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Any other - please state:
PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
Lecture 4 reading list:
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From “The Ethnicity Reader” (Guibernau & Rex, 1997) read Anderson
From the “Nationalism” Oxford reader (Hutchinson & Smith, 1994) anything
from sections I, II and III or go straight to the source:
Anthony Smith The ethnic origins of nations, pp. 6-13, 16-18
Benedict Anderson Imagined communities, pp. 5-7
Ernest Gellner Nations and nationalism, pp. 1-7 + ‘Adam’s navel…’ in
Mortimer & Fine People, Nation and State (pp. 31-35) + Smith ‘The Nation:
Real or Imagined?’ (ibid.) (pp. 36-42)
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Eric Hobsbawm Nations and nationalism since 1780, pp. 8-13
Michael Hechter Containing nationalism pp. 5-9
Craig Calhoun Nationalism pp. 1-8
Montserrat Guibernau Nationalisms pp. 46-51
Rogers Brubaker Nationalism reframed pp. 13-16
Walker Connor Ethnonationalism pp. 90-103
Miroslav Hroch Social preconditions of national revival in Europe pp. xi-xviii, 3-17
Pdf files!; any general book on nationalism that you can find in the library
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